Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence, and Security

Intelligence Policy and Review (OIPR), United States Office of

The Office of Intelligence Policy and Review (OIPR) advises the United
States attorney general regarding matters relating to U.S. national
security activities. In accordance with the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act of 1978, OIPR prepares and files all applications for
authorization to conduct electronic surveillance and physical searches. It
also acts as legal adviser, not only to the attorney general and the
Department of Justice as a whole, but also to the Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Department of
Defense, Department of State, and other federal agencies. Additionally,
OIPR acts as the Department of Justice representative on several
interagency committees.

Acting under the direction of the Counsel for Intelligence Policy, the
attorney general's legal adviser in intelligence matters, OIPR
helps keep the attorney general—as the chief law-enforcement
executive in the United States—abreast of all relevant national
security activities. Under the provisions of the Foreign Intelligence and
Surveillance Act, OIPR also prepares applications for surveillance and
searches, and presents these to the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
Court.

Both for the attorney general and for various intelligence agencies such
as the CIA, OIPR provides formal and informal legal counsel on matters
relating to U.S. intelligence activities and procedures. For example, in
the 1980s, OIPR helped bring an end to an FBI probe of the Committee in
Support of the People of El Salvador (CISPES). That group supported the
overthrow of the Salvadoran government by Marxist guerrillas, but based on
OIPR's analysis, did not appear to be a communist front
organization, and OIPR advised FBI leadership in 1985 that the probe
threatened CISPES's First Amendment rights.

More than a decade later, OIPR was involved in the scandals surrounding
Chinese nuclear spying in the United States during the administration of
President William J. Clinton. OIPR twice received applications to wiretap
scientist Wen Ho Lee at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and twice
rejected these applications on the basis that there was not sufficient
evidence against him. The FBI disagreed, and in 1999, Attorney General
Janet Reno blamed the burgeoning scandal in part on the two agencies for
not bringing their disagreement before her.

OIPR serves as a sounding board for other agencies' opinions on
matters involving proposed legislation regarding intelligence-related
matters. It also represents the attorney general on a variety of
interagency task forces and committees concerned with issues of national
security and nonproliferation, as well as scientific exchanges,
administration of exports, information security, personnel security, and
foreign overflights of U.S. territory. Serving the Department of Justice
as a whole, OIPR represents the department on interagency committees,
including the National Foreign Intelligence Council.

Within the Justice Department, OIPR heads the Department Review Committee,
which carries out department policy on security classifications and makes
decisions regarding Privacy Act and Freedom of Information Act appeals. On
the Intelligence-Law Enforcement Policy Board, OIPR co-chairs a variety of
groups whose purpose is to facilitate better working relationships between
components of the intelligence, security, and law-enforcement communities.